Incredible GTA IV mod brings photo-realism to PC gamers

Photorealism is a lofty aspiration that many games claim to offer to gamers. We’ve never gotten close enough to anything that manages to rise out of the uncanny valley and into something that’s far more believable than we’re comfortable with. Simulators and on-the-rails first-person shooters come close and offer incredible visuals, but it’s never quite there.

That hasn’t stopped modders from trying all they can to do what the developers couldn’t – polish games up to the point where they look almost perfect. GTA IV has been one of the recipients of the modding community’s thorough attention to detail. One player decided to mix up some of the currently available mods to create a photorealistic version of the game.

The modder, who goes by the name darkdeus on Reddit, takes screenshots in games as a hobby and has over one thousand pictures on his Flickr account. The ones below are of GTA IV at the UltraHD 4K resolution, boasting four times the number of pixels of 1080p, in recognition of a game that thoroughly changed our perceptions of what a GTA game could look and feel like.

For those of you playing GTA V now, have a look at the gallery below and start annoying Rockstar to release the PC version – this game, with these mods, looks incredible. If this is what next-gen games could look like, I cannot wait to see it realised.